Reservations begin today for the first completed ball field at the new E. S. Rose Park and Sports Complex, located at 1000 Edgehill Avenue in Nashville, said Metro Parks in a press release. The new softball diamond will be available for booking by community groups and softball leagues as part of an innovative, shared facilities concept between Belmont University and Metro Parks.
The new softball field is one of several athletic venues currently under construction at the complex, which will ultimately include:
• a 750-seat synthetic turf baseball field;
• a 250-seat natural grass softball field;
• a new 300-seat track;
• soccer facilities with synthetic turf for safety and speed;
• a walking track;
• relocated basketball courts;
• a single-story 5,150-square-foot center providing team locker space and concession stand.
Belmont University is investing over $9 million in the park and will make annual lease payments of $50,000 to provide support to the surrounding schools as well as support the programming for youth and seniors at the Easley Center. Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation will own and control the scheduling of E.S. Rose Park and Sports Complex and its improvements.
In addition to its athletic offerings, the $9 million renovated facility promotes new and improved collaborations between the Easley Center, the Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation facility located in the park; Carter Lawrence Elementary School; Rose Park Middle School; local neighborhood organizations; and nearby Belmont University.
Reservations Begin Today for Rose Park Softball Field
Bullington Receives Grant from National Endowment of the Humanities
Dr. Judy Bullington, Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art, received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to participate in a four-week summer institute at the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts and Design.
Dr. Bullington is one of 18 university faculty members selected nationwide to participate in this institute. Participants will reside at the Bard Graduate Center to allow access to cutting-edge digital resources. The Bard Graduate Center has developed an expertise in this new field through its collaborations with several leading universities and museums, as well as its own staff of innovative practitioners of new media pedagogy and production. Over the course of the program, participants will design and create collaborative new media projects using Omeka in the Bard Graduate Center’s Digital Media Lab (DML). Exhibits will be based upon individual proposals for research projects submitted in conjunction with the initial NEH grant application. The Bard Graduate Center will host that virtual exhibition site and support it after the institute, along with an institute wiki to continue collaboration and consultations.
Dr. Bullington said, “This represents an important opportunity for professional development in terms of my academic field which is 19th century American art history, but I am also excited about the possibilities it creates for enriching the learning experiences of Belmont students who study art history. I hope through the introduction of these new approaches and technologies, more students will be enticed to study art history, a very dynamic and exciting field with viable career opportunities.”
The grant represents a significant opportunity to obtain training in the literature and practice of American material culture studies. The primary focus is on the material culture of the 19th century using New York as a case study because of its role as a national center for fashioning cultural commodities and promoting consumer tastes. Important texts in the scholarship of material culture will be studied in tandem with visiting some of the wonderful collections in and around New York City for hands-on work with artifacts under the guidance of the director of the Bard Graduate Center and curators in those individual institutions. These include the archives and collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, American Folk Art Museum, the Museum of Chinese in America, the National Museum of the American Indian, the African Burial Ground, The New York Historical Society and the Hudson River Valley Estates of Lyndhurst and Glenview, among others.
Author/Pastor Rob Bell to Speak at Belmont Tuesday Night
On Tuesday night, April 5, Belmont Church and Belmont University will be hosting author Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church (Grand Rapids) and featured speaker in spiritual short film series NOOMA, in the Curb Event Center. Bell is currently on a book tour promoting his latest work, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. In this work Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith—the afterlife.
Doors open at 6 p.m., and the event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Bell will speak for approximately 25 minutes before taking questions from attendees.
Click here for directions to Belmont’s Curb Event Center as well as to find links to maps of the area and Belmont’s campus.
Belmont University Competes to Host 2012 Presidential Debate
Following Belmont’s successful hosting of the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate, the University confirmed today that it has submitted an application to the Commission on Presidential Debates to hold one of the series of scheduled 2012 debates featuring the presidential candidates.
Belmont is among 12 possible locations nationwide for the 2012 Presidential Debates. As in 2008, the multi-faceted Curb Event Center is the proposed venue for the debates, with supporting roles played by other campus facilities. Belmont’s leadership, faculty, staff, students and alumni will participate in supporting this unique and internationally significant event.
Civic organizations, state and local government officials have supported Belmont’s bid for the debates following the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate and its impact on both the university and the broader community. At the conclusion of that event, then-Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, who served as an honorary chair for the debate’s host committee, said, “Belmont served as a perfect venue for the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate, and the university’s army of volunteers gave the candidates, campaign guests and visiting media a glimpse into the best of what Tennessee has to offer.”
Belmont President Robert Fisher led the charge to attract the Presidential Debates to Nashville and Belmont. His interest in exposing students to real life experiences and challenging them to think beyond the classroom has positioned Belmont as a university with a unique service mandate that prepares graduates to be contributing members of society after graduation.
“2008 brought Belmont University and the Nashville community together in a powerful way around one of the most historic elections in our nation’s history,” Fisher said. “I am confident that the capability, dedication and spirit of the Belmont community and our Middle Tennessee partners will enable us to achieve an even better event in 2012 if selected.”
The following universities have submitted applications to host a 2012 general election debate:
Belmont University (Nashville, TN)
Centre College (Danville, KY)
Dominican University of California (San Rafael, CA)
Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, KY)
Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY)
Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)
Lynn University (Boca Raton, FL)
Saint Mary’s College of California (Moraga, CA)
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (Pomona, NJ)
University of Denver (Denver, CO)
Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC)
Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)
Social Work Club Named Social Work Student Organization of the Year
Belmont University’s Social Work Club was recently named the Social Work Student Organization of the Year. This state-wide award is given to the Social Work Student Organization or Club that best demonstrates Social Work’s core values: Service, Social Justice, Dignity and Worth of the Person, Importance of Human Relationships, Integrity, and Competence (NASW Code of Ethics). Organizations exemplify these values through their actions within the school, profession, and/or community at large.
The members of the Belmont student organization have served both the school and community at large. The relationship between community and campus was supported when they took initiative to partner with the Community Connections Fair. They demonstrated exemplary service within the community by preparing and serving dinner to homeless residents of Tent City, reading books to children at Family Literacy Day, taking part in the Vulnerability Index study and sponsoring a series of on-campus events in the fall to raise awareness of domestic violence (among a wide variety of other projects). Additionally, the club continued to serve the community by having a month-long food drive to support a local food pantry.
Belmont Celebrates Literacy Week With Acclaimed Writers Faye Gibbons, Dana Gioia
Series of events to culminate in 11th Annual Family Literacy Day ‘Read With Me’ Event Sat., April 9
Belmont University’s 11th Annual Family Literacy Day “Read With Me” event will take place on Sat., April 9 from 1-4 p.m. in the Easley Center at Rose Park in the Edgehill community. Family Literacy Day represents the culmination of a week-long celebration of literacy efforts that will include guest lectures on Belmont’s campus from acclaimed and award-winning children’s author Faye Gibbons and award-winning poet and former head of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia. (Gioia will offer a free public lecture on “Reading and Civic Engagement” Thursday evening, April 8, from 8-9 p.m. in the Belmont Heights Baptist Church sanctuary on the campus of Belmont University. A book signing will follow his talk.)
The Family Literacy Day “Read With Me” event is aimed at children from pre-K through grade 6 and their families and is designed to celebrate the joys of reading with a free afternoon of interactive story times, crafts and games. The primary focus of the event is Reading Circles, hosted by various campus groups such as the Student Government Association, the English Club, fraternities and sororities, the Black Student Alliance and the Student Athlete Council. Each group picks a different theme and offers a variety of books for all ages.
Adams Selected for Internship in France
Camille Adams, a junior French and Religious Studies major from Greeneville, Tenn., has been chosen by Sister Cities of Nashville to work this July as an intern in the Mayor’s office in Caen, France (Nashville’s Sister City). Adams has been studying French since her sophomore year in high school and has always dreamed of travelling to France. She will receive free lodging and a salary for her month-long internship. Belmont’s Center for International Business recently became an official sponsor of Sister Cities of Nashville, and Camille is the first Belmont student chosen for this internship.
First-Year Writing Students Prepare a Meal for Dismas House Residents
Students for Charmion Gustke’s (English) First-year Writing class, “Cultivating a Garden of One’s Own,” prepared a vegetarian meal for the residents of the Dismas House. The mission of the Dismas House, a neighbor of Belmont since 1974, is to reconcile former prisoners to society in a family setting that fosters community building. The students of this service-learning course, inspired by scholars such as Michael Pollan and Wendell Berry, learn about the intrinsic connections between citizenship and food production, breaking the barriers between what is taught in the classroom and what is practiced in the community.
Tim Lauer Receives Curtain Call Award
School of Music alumnus Tim Lauer received the Curtain Call Award last Thursday at a concert in his honor. The award is presented annually to a School of Music alumnus in honor of achievement in the field of commercial and popular music.
Upon his graduation in 1990, Lauer used his Belmont education and connections to secure jobs playing piano and percussion, songwriting, arranging and producing. He was a band leader for Trisha Yearwood and has toured with Kathy Mattea and Wynonna Judd. Lauer has played on more than 200 records with a variety of artists including Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Sugarland, Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, Michael McDonald, Amy Grant and the Gospel Music Association’s 2010 Artist of the Year, Francesca Battistelli. His songs have appeared on “The Simple Life,” “One Tree Hill” and “Drop Dead Diva,” and he received an Emmy nomination for the song “Can You Love Me with the Lights On” featured on “Guiding Light.”
Previous Curtain Call Award winners include Josh Turner, Ginny Owens, Chester Thompson, Jill Phillips Gullahorn, Will Denton, Fleming McWilliams, Melodie Crittenden, Jozef Nuyens, Gordon Mote, Tammy Rogers King, Bernie Herms and Chris Rodriguez. Click here to see additional photos from the event.
Unabomber’s Brother Speaks on Mental Illness, Death Penalty
David Kaczynski, the executive director of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the younger brother of Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a., the “Unabomber,” spoke on Belmont’s campus Wednesday in a convocation co-sponsored by Belmont’s Psychology Club and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
During his hour-long talk David Kaczynski recounted life growing up with his gifted older brother, whose IQ was tested at a genius level, 165. “I always knew he was special, different,” David said. “If there was a Michael Jordan of mathematics, it would have been my brother.”
However, Ted Kaczynski’s academic gifts didn’t translate to the social realm, and David worried that his brother had no friends. Following a full scholarship to Harvard University at the age of 16, Ted was working as a professor of mathematics in his mid-20s when he announced he was quitting his job because of his concerns about technology, calling it a monster. He moved to a solitary cabin in the woods of Montana, where he spent the next 25 years with little contact with his family.
When the New York Times published an anti-technology manifesto in 1995 written by the Unabomber, David and his wife found the document’s writing style eerily familiar, resembling letters received from Ted through the years. The target of an intense FBI investigation, the Unabomber had engaged in a mail bombing spree that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.
